


A Familiar Face In An Unfamiliar Place

by TheOnlyWife



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: And college parties, College, M/M, Sort of a rom-com, mentions of bullying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:54:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27677030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOnlyWife/pseuds/TheOnlyWife
Summary: At a college party Danny doesn’t want to be at he meets an all-too-familiar face.
Relationships: Dash Baxter/Danny Fenton
Comments: 18
Kudos: 128





	A Familiar Face In An Unfamiliar Place

The pounding music, the flashing lights, and the sounds of shoes hitting the floor. All the signs of a rocking house party in full swing. 

Too bad Danny Fenton was sitting on the balcony outside instead of dancing inside.

Instead of talking to other party-goers (more like shouting with how loud the music was), he preferred to have his feet dangling off of the broken porch with no railing on one side. He tried talking to others, he reasoned, but that didn’t go so well.

The first person spent the whole conversation blowing smoke in his face. She asked if he minded. When she did it again, he waved away the smoke, said ‘Yes’, and promptly walked away.

Another talked on and on about himself. Danny was pretty sure it was the host, with how much he was bragging about this luxurious house and how much money he had. In that entire one-sided conversation, Danny couldn’t get a single word in. Lucky for him, the guy walked off to talk to another rich friend of his.

And the last time he tried to talk to others, it was a group of (way too young to be here) girls, offering shots of whatever spiked liquid they were drunk on. He tried to politely decline, but one girl pushed herself up on him, flirting and touching his chest way more than he was comfortable with.

Ignoring all social norms about putting hands on girls, he shoved her off so hard she fell to the floor. He didn’t stick around long enough to hear what her friends had to say about him.

And that’s how he ended up out here.

He didn’t even want to come, but his new “friends” (the ones who only liked him because he has ghost hunter parents and is tutoring most of them in their classes) made him come. Though, helping them was pointless because they always came to these kinds of parties instead of studying. 

The college he went to was known for that, he supposed, when he looked into it after an offer for a scholarship. For having rich kids getting in on their parents money, spending the time partying, getting drunk, and going everywhere but class, that is.

Unlike him, who spent almost every night studying and working on the few essays he always had due, they either got in by being rich or got in on a sports scholarship. Not to say those who got in that way were bad, but he’d had bad experiences with those kinds of people in high school.

Not that these friends of his were any better. If he had his way, he’d never see them again. He’d tried to make friends in the beginning, but when people heard that his parents were ghost hunters and he was from a haunted town, that was all they cared about.

Nevermind that he liked astronomy, knew several martial arts, and made beautiful paintings in his spare time. No, they all just heard ‘ghosts’ and ran with it.

He missed Sam and Tucker, he really did, but he was so proud of them for getting into their dream colleges. Tucker, an engineering school, famous for making groundbreaking inventions. Sam, a foreign college, known for their variety of classes, including an intensive environmentalism class.

And him, well, his parents were happy to have him get in on a full scholarship and into a program for future astronauts. If he kept up his good grades he’d actually be able to live out his dreams. 

But he couldn’t do that if he spent every weekend at a party like his friends did.

That night’s sky was perfect for stargazing, had it not been for the music coming from the closed patio door. Maybe if he flew home now, he could still enjoy the sunrise from the top of his house, instead of from his dorm window covered in cobwebs.

The sound of the door behind him sliding open startled him out of that idea. He prayed it wasn’t one of his friends coming to get him. Or worse, someone coming out here to smoke again.

“Don’t want to be here either?” the person, a boy sounding about his age, asked.

He sighed, feeling just as tired as before. “You could say that.”

After a few seconds the person had sat down next to him, feet dangling off the edge next to his. He dared to look over, hoping not to see another dude looking for a drinking buddy, when he saw a very familiar face.

“Dash?” he asked, not believing what he was seeing. “What are you doing here?”

“Not having a good time.” Dash said, sighing into his hands. “My friends wanted to come and I’m the sober one driving them all home.”

Danny could relate, actually. It was never agreed upon, but he was pretty sure his friends were planning on using him as a free ride back to their dorms too.

“Haven’t seen you since senior year.” Dash commented lightly. “How you been Danny?”

“Woah, woah.” Danny raised his hands. “Since when have you ever called me ‘Danny’?”

Dash sighed again, somehow sounding even more tired. “A lot’s changed.”

“I find that hard to believe.” Danny crossed his arms, frowning. The same jock who used to beat him up every day turning his ways around like some stupid rom-com was just not possible.

“It wasn’t easy, you know.” Dash replied, keeping the same tone instead of getting angry like he normally would.

“I’m listening.” Danny found himself saying, relaxing his arms down into his lap.

“It used to be us-versus-them in high school.” he began. “And I used to think that if I wasn’t at the top, then I’d be a bottom feeder. I’m not smart, I’m not good looking, and I wasn’t that good at football.”

“I don't think any of those things are true.” Danny started defending Dash before he could even think. “You played pretty well, you did good on your homework when you actually tried, and you’re not exactly ugly.”

Realizing what he just said, he stuttered and tried to backtrack. Dash just laughed. Not in the mean way he used to when beating someone up, but a genuine laugh that made Danny’s nervousness disappear.

“You don’t look so bad yourself.” Dash said, smiling.

Danny’s face burned up immediately, an intense blush making his way down to his neck. He resisted the urge to cover up his face and said “Continue your story, please.”

“After I left that world and the ‘friends’ I made there, things really turned around. I didn’t have to be the smartest or coolest or most handsome person to make friends.” Dash turned his head to look at him. “Did you know I like card games?”

Danny shook his head. He shot back “No, I never thought about what you liked while avoiding you at all costs.”

“Yeah...sorry about that.” Dash rubbed the back of his neck. “But, yeah, I like card games. There’s a club for that here. We get together every Friday night and play for hours. I finally feel like I can be myself with them.”

Danny didn’t know why, but he was suddenly glad he came to this party. Well, he knows why, but he can’t believe it. Dash, his high school bully, was here and was being _nice_.

And maybe it was just him, but the music seemed to be getting drowned out by Dash’s soothing voice. Dash kept talking about his time in college. He got in on a sports scholarship, but he decided that he didn’t just want ‘Jock’ to be his only defining personality trait anymore.

He said that he left most of his friends when he came to this school. He said he wasn’t sure what they were doing now. He just wanted to get out of that suffocating fake personality he had to hold up for four years.

“Would you like to get coffee with me sometime?” Dash offered suddenly.

“What?” Danny, for the third time, can’t believe what he just heard. Not only was his former bully a nice person, but was also interested in him.

“Coffee.” Dash repeated. “I know you love it.”

“How’d you know that?” 

“You didn’t really think you were invisible in high school, did you?” Dash smirked. “I know I wasn’t the only person who knew that you liked space. And I know that you got coffee with your friends every morning before school. You kept all your empty cups in your lady friends’ locker until after school because there was no garbage can in the hallways and I would never shove her in her own locker.”

“That’s….very perceptive of you.” Danny said slowly.

“I know I wasn’t the brightest, but I paid more attention than you’d think.”

Danny still couldn’t believe that Dash was here, talking to him like they were old friends, and genuinely asked him out. He certainly wasn’t kidding when he asked, that he knew. But he also knew that this party still going on was something he was willing to ditch at any time. Screw his ‘friends’ for forcing him to come here, then planning on using him for a free ride.

“You know what?” he stood up, brushing himself off. “Coffee sounds nice.”

Dash stood up beside him, smiling wide. Danny did the riskiest thing he’s done in a long time and took Dash’s hand. He was half expecting the worst to come, but it never did. Dash squeezed his hand lightly, gesturing with his other to the balcony stairs. 

“Let’s get out of here.”

**Author's Note:**

> I don't usually do romance, but this idea just popped into my head randomly!
> 
> I _love_ comments! Feel free to say whatever you like about my writing. Even just a <3 as an extra kudos is much appreicated!


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